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A Matter of Leadership

On Aug. 13, President Obama held a Ramadan dinner at the White House and announced that “this is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable.” This is a statement I absolutely agree with, and I wish that Western countries would be inspired by the hat tip to our founding principles.

When you’ve taken as many positions on as many issues as Obama has, you start to lose your credibility.

The president went on to say, “I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.”

I agree with that, too. I’m a Catholic who sees threats to religious liberty increasing here at home -- largely by judicial legislative fiat -- and I'm earnest about ensuring its protection for us all.

But I also think that to build an Islamic center near ground zero is an imprudent move. If Islam had a pope, he might advise the Cordoba House developers as much, just as the late Pope John Paul advised Polish sisters not to build a convent at Auschwitz (my friend Bill McGurn wrote well about this in The Wall Street Journal). It is not a surrender of freedom to be sensitive. It is, in fact, a reverent exercise of freedom.

President Obama, of course, did not say any of this at his Ramadan dinner. Instead, the following day, he said: “I was not commenting, and I will not comment, on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding.”

How can President Obama navigate this contentious issue given the opposition of Senator Reid and other Democrats? The quick answer is that he could change his position very easily, since he doesn’t have one. But when you’ve taken as many positions on as many issues as the president has, you start to lose your credibility.

For Democrats facing tough elections, President Obama's shifting stance will be of little help.

If the president were to try to clarify himself a third time to say that he thinks a Hamas-endorsed Islamic center near ground zero run by an imam who cannot bring himself to condemn the terror group is inappropriate, then we might have a semblance of leadership on our hands. But reread President Obama's Cairo speech. I’m not holding my breath.